Anonymous “technical advisor” for the US Consulate in Lahore Raymond Davis, two anonymous motorcyclists gunned down on the streets and a major diplomatic row over the intricacies of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic immunity.
This hardly made for a “simple” story in the first place, but rumors and preliminary reports from unnamed officials are putting a number of new spins on this incident which could potentially turn this into one of the seediest scandals imaginable.
That is because investigators reportedly found GPS targeting chips on Davis, the kind which were used in the US drone attacks in North Waziristan. Adding to the intrigue, Davis is said to have made several unauthorized visits to North Waziristan before his arrest.
If that sounds a little far-fetched, there’s another piece of evidence tying this together. After attacks several times a week there hasn’t been a single US drone strike in the tribal areas in the past 25 days, and they stopped just a couple of days before Davis’ arrest.
What about the two cyclists? The ones Davis said were trying to “rob” him and that he shot in the back, including one he jumped out of the car and ran down the street to finish off? Reports have been around from the start that they may have been spies for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, and if Davis was indeed involved in the drone strikes, it might well explain their interest in him.
Obviously all of this is pretty speculative, but the story of impossible intrigue and diplomatic dispute does seem internally consistent, and only adds another reason why this story will simply not vanish from headlines in Pakistan.
This story has been deliberately under reported by major media. The story has all but disappeared in the last few days. Obama apparently insists on operating with impunity within Pakistan.
Must be some self respect problem…… "I'll take on the toughest assignments that anyone could imagine…. I'll be president of the United States!! I'll civilize Afghanistan… I'll rule the world..!! I'll prove I'm good enough"……….. Moving kids around too much while they are growing up brings trouble!!!
Of course, it is also possible that the US has cancelled drone strikes while this scandal is ongoing in order not to further inflame anti-American feeling in Pakistan. The ISI, meanwhile, has strenuously denied that the two killed men worked for them. But there are a lot of unanswered questions, and this situation is only going to get worse, whether or not Davis is released.
Doesn't Pakistan have a rendition center like Bagram or the one in Egypt where they can waterboard his sorry a$$ till he spill the beans or 'disappear' the s.o.b at least for 5years like they did Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Nothing less will be good enough.
Waterboard would be appropriate since, as we know, it is not too excessive and not in conflict with any convention. Then Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld should be interviewed to express their views on this "standard" method of interrogation.
Drones are not that smart. They are mainly used for forward observation. Someone on the ground has to place the homing signal on the builiding that is to be targeted.
A few years ago the public was shown video of "smart" weapons that really do not exist. It is part of the illusion that is created to sustain the public's belief that we do not kill innocent people and permit these wars to continue indefinitley.
Check this out:
‘We can see everything’: USAF launches ‘airborne surveillance system’
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/we-everything-…
Test
[moderator note: Does this mean you passed or failed?]
What the hell is a "GPS chip"?
Either you have the coordinates of your target, in which case there is no need for a chip as you just the operator in Langley where to direct the drone or you are after a mobile target in which case a "chip" is not going to cut it. A GPS + battery + the device that transmits the GPS signal to wherever (the mobile network? iridium? a nearby drone network?) is not small, about book-sized at least.
What the hell is a "GPS chip"?
Either you have the coordinates of your target, in which case there is no need for a chip as you just tell the operator in Langley where to direct the drone or you are after a mobile target in which case a "chip" is not going to cut it. A GPS + battery + the device that transmits the GPS signal to [wherever] (the mobile network? iridium? a nearby drone network?) is not small, about book-sized at least.
Then again, with all the billions going into Black Ops they may just have found a way to minitiurize the device…
As someone who used to work for a GPS company, what I picture is a small chip that can (connected to an antenna) interpret GPS signals and determine its current position.
At the heart of most car based GPS systems would be a GPS chip.
Of course, no telling what this reporter was really trying to say. He undoubtably is a total idiot at the technology. He probably talked to someone who knew something, but the odds of this coming out highly garbled or unintelligible once the know-nothing reporter tries to rewrite or rephrase what he's been told is very high. So, its very hard to know that the heck he was really told.
But to me, a "GPS Chip" is a chip that can do the calcs to determine position from GPS signals.
It would also be pretty useless on its own. It needs to be connected to at least an antenna and some power and probably other circuit boards. So, on its own its rather useless I'd imagine, unless McGyver hooks it up using his socks, some tape and the wire stripped from a phone cord or something.
The interesting thing to me is to wonder if he was selling or giving the chips to someone else who wanted to be able to block or spoof the GPS tracking in the drones.
BTW, land surveyors use GPS systems that are combined and functional and are about the size of a salad bowl sitting on top of a range pole. Extra computing power to control the device can come from an I-phone size computer. That's commercial apps, from companies that do work hard to try to make these as small and light as possible since that's a selling point to surveyors who have to carry the things all day long.
Doesn't mean that's the latest classified tech. But, IIRC, a lot of that size is the size needed for the antenna that can pick up relatively weak radio signals from satellites hundreds of miles away. And, there's a limit to how small power supplies and batteries can get.
This is almost surreal, like Ludlum masterminded the whole affair.
OOOOO this is taking on a juicy aspect…. When will someone find out about this guy……Who he Really is and WHAT does he DO there in Pakistan……He sure doesn't act like a diplomat..!! More like a spy….special forces kind of guy…!! Did he REALLY chase down and shoot someone when his vehicle was a treasure trove of contraversial evidence..?? When these guys get captured don't they usually play the plausible denialability card…?? What is SPECIAL about Davis or whatever his name really is.
The "O" crew needs to get off the dime and trade him for Afia Siddiqui before things spin further out of control…. They are placing too much pressure on this guy…..he could snap and provide some really lurid headlines to shock the world ……… KABOOM…!!!
It's time for Pakistan to give this boy the Gitmo treatment. I'm willing to bet that he would sing like a canary with just one bucket of water down his throat. And since that kind of thing is not torture or anything, is not as if they would be doing anything illegal.
I give them about 10 months before this story ends up on the silver screen – with Russell Crowe, Matt Damon, George Clooney, or hell, Arnold Schwarzenegger (he's got nothing to do now) as the leading star. They'll tell the "real truth" about the incident and the american public will believe it, lock, stock, and barrel. Yup!
Nope. This is more James Bond.
Spooky boys and the games that kill the innocent. Not to worry folks, John 'condiment' Kerry is on the job and he'll save the spook 4 sure.
I wonder if Albert Broccoli is all over this one for the script to a James Bond movie.
This is awful convoluted and it's crystal clear that there's a lot more here than meets the eye. However, I don't think it has anything to do with the drone strikes, per se. I read an article (right here, perhaps?) detailing how they had just deployed a new generation of drones (even before the other generation got old) with some tremendous surveillance capabilities. They can photograph and entire town in one pass. And all that good and creepy stuff. If that is the case, why would they use a yoyo like Davis to steak out locations manually before they target?
Just sayin'…